Forum
UrbanShift Latin America Forum
Focusing on the theme of financing for green and resilient cities, this Forum offered capacity-building and networking opportunities for cities across Latin America.
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FORUM SPEAKERS: PORTUGUESE | SPANISH | ENGLISH
As cities in Latin American continue to evolve and expand, integrated and sustainable approaches to development are more crucial than ever—as are innovative strategies to finance such projects.
From April 16-19, 2024, UrbanShift hosted a groundbreaking regional conference dedicated to exploring the pivotal role of cities in the effort to transition to an equitable, sustainable, and livable future for all. The UrbanShift Latin America Forum focused on understanding, engaging with, and contributing to the financing of transformative initiatives shaping the cities of tomorrow.
During the Forum, participants had the chance to:
- Exchange Knowledge: Gain insights from sector leaders, experts, and visionaries on navigating the complexities of financing and designing sustainable urban projects.
- Network: Connect with a diverse community of professionals, including investors, government officials, urban planners, and sustainability experts. Build relationships that can fuel projects and drive real change.
- Build Capacity: Acquire actionable tools and strategies to implement sustainable financing practices in your urban development projects. Learn from real-world case studies and apply these insights to your local context.
- Advocate: Gain a broader understanding of sustainable urban development by exploring global perspectives. Learn from successful projects in the region and be part of discussions shaping future policies.
The UrbanShift Latin America Forum offered a dynamic, multifaceted experience for participants, comprising the following events:
- Opening Plenary: To set the scene for the Forum and unite participants around the main goals of furthering understanding and action for financing green and resilient cities, the opening Plenary introduced key themes and preview the activities to come.
- City-Business Hub: This event convened city and business representatives to meet, learn and discuss ways of public-private collaboration to tackle climate challenges. As Latin American cities deal with large-scale biodiversity loss, rapid urbanization, increased climate risk and high unemployment rates, especially among young people and minority groups, this event encouraged the public and private sectors to work collectively on solutions.
- City-Business Climate Alliance Workshop: The City-Business Climate Alliance (CBCA) Workshop provided a platform for cities and companies to collaborate and co-create solutions to ensure that tourism growth is managed sustainably in Latin American cities and generates good green jobs. In the context of Belém hosting the COP30 event, the group ended the session by co-creating a set of recommendations on how each city can take advantage of the opportunity of major events, including how Belém can sustainably manage the increase in visitor numbers for COP30.
- Investors Roundtable: This half-day event for city leaders and investors offered a deep dive into how to structure projects that attract the interest of financiers. This Investors Roundtable focused on city-level climate adaptation projects and equipped participants from cities with hands-on guidance and resources around structuring bankable projects.
- UrbanShift City Academy Courses: Focusing on three themes--Accommodating Urban Growth, Circular Economy, and Accessing Urban Climate Finance--these trainings took place over two days and combined presentations and interactive exercises to facilitate the exchange of best practices.
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